Development of Regional Measurement Methods: The Context for Quantifying Influence and Impact

Abstract

Many urban areas, in both developed and developing countries, have been subject to the forces of relatively uncontrolled expansion and sprawl. While the political, social and economic drivers of sprawl may not affect urban areas identically, all urban areas rely on suburban, rural, and other less densely settled lands to supply the resources necessary for their existence. Sprawling land patterns have changed the regional balance between land dedicated to resource consumption (urban areas) and resource production (rural areas), a balance essential for the long-term sustainability of human systems. In this context, it is critical for the long-term vitality of urban areas to ensure that resource consumptive and productive land patterns are in balance. Current measurement methods, however, such as indicator frameworks, ecological footprint analysis, and urban metabolism, focus primarily on the urban portion of the region and neglect exurb an areas. In order to quantify the impacts of various urban land patterns on their supporting resources, and to assess the relative properties (or impacts) of various land patterns, exurb an lands must be included as an integral part of the assessment scheme. This need for a regional view has driven the development of a quantitative measurement method called regional characteristic curves, which enables relative comparisons between regional land use patterns. The purpose of this paper is to review the range of historical and current land-pattern measurement methods, detail their properties in addressing regional land-pattern comparison, and illustrate the niche filled by the regional characteristic curve method.